Soul Bound
by Internal Debate
Summary: :Daemon 'Verse: Humans were not created to be alone; and neither were their daemons. All Hermione and Liron desire is for a special friend to call their own- and when they meet Harry and Amynta, they get all they wanted. And more. Set a few months pre-Hogwarts. ::Pre-H/Hr::
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **I just _really _wanted to write a _Harry Potter/His Dark Materials _crossover for the longest time. So much so, that this story doesn't _quite _have an overall deep plot, other than Harry and Hermione meeting each other before Hogwarts, and giving me free leeway to write about my favorite characters and their daemons!

**Settings: **The only thing that people need to know for this story is that it incorporates, from _His Dark Materials, _the concept of daemons and all of the social etiquette that follows. (For those who don't know, daemons are spiritual manifestations of a person's soul- their other half, if you will, -that walks beside that person instead of residing in their bodies. Daemons take on the forms of animal wildlife, but are just as intelligent and independently willed as much as their humans are, with their own personalities and dispositions.)

Other than that, (and Harry and Hermione meeting earlier than normal), the world of _Harry Potter _is relatively the same. For now, anyway.

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Neither _Harry Potter, _nor _His Dark Materials, _belong to me. I use them only for entertainment purposes. I promise to return them in mint condition when I'm done.

* * *

_"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies..." **Aristotle**_

* * *

**:Prologue:**

* * *

When Hermione had been a little girl- well, younger than she is _now, -_her mother used to whisper to her that daemons were gifts from God.

"_He knows Humans don't like to be alone, so he created for us companions that would be with us for eternity," _Lucille would whisper into her daughter's ear, her arms wrapped firmly around the little girl's body at night when it was time for bed.

Usually Liron was perched by Hermione's ankles, his body preening with pleasure under Xavier's gentle prodding. Hearing her mother's soothing voice, and feeling the love and comfort seeping in through Liron from a brush of Xavier's feathers, or a soft prod from his beak would lull Hermione into a deep sleep.

A sleep where she dreamed she had human friends to play with- not just her daemon.

And now, as she sits down on the bench, hunched over and watching the other children playing with shrieks of shouts and laughter, she wishes for a human companion more than ever.

_Thinking those thoughts will get you nowhere; _Hermione chastises herself, and instead lowers her eyes to the open book before her. _Why should I need anything more than Liron to make me happy?_

"Reading again, huh?" the familiar voice speaks up from above the eleven year old, scattering her dim thoughts. The voice is calm, but Hermione can hear the hidden humor in the tone, and her lip twitches into a grin. Slipping her bookmark into place, Hermione lifts her head to see her daemon, Liron, flying above her by a few feet.

His chosen form of the day, as had been the last three days, is a bat. Watching his small, black form swooping in graceful arcs makes Hermione shake her head, and when she cuts her eyes over to a boy who had suddenly let out a playful shriek while sliding down a long slide, she isn't feeling quite so melancholy.

"I like books," Hermione huffs, sliding closer to the bench table, and bracing her arms on either side of the book as if to protect it. "I can go anyplace I want to when I'm reading, and it's _enjoyable."_

"Mmm," Liron offers unintelligibly. His wings flutter for a moment, and Hermione jerks her head back a bit, out of the way, as he plops himself down heavily- right in the middle of the book. Spreading his wings out wide, he effectively blocks the words of the book, and Hermione frowns at him.

"Seriously, Li," Hermione chastises, using his nickname with some affection finding its way into her voice. "I can't read if you're blocking the words. Just because you're my daemon doesn't mean I can magically see through you,"

Liron snorts at Hermione's attempt at a joke.

"Of course you can't; that's why I did it," he tells her dutifully. "If you want us to make more friends, let's go do it right now. If we sit here and read, we won't be able to make friends at all."

Hermione bites her lower lip, feeling the anxiety forming in her stomach at the thought of trying to speak to the other kids. It is bad enough at school where many of her peers ostracize her for her intelligence or her near anal-retentive habits; to get shunned here in such a public place is too much of a risk.

"I don't know about this, Li…" Hermione tries, but Liron doesn't listen. Instead, he peers up at her knowingly, staring back at her with honey brown eyes that are exact mirrors of her own- after all, the eyes are windows to the soul, and Liron _is _her soul.

His eyes are full of support and when he nudges her hand with his small, warm head, she can feel his love for her sliding up her arm from the contact.

She sighs with content before she can stop it.

"Let's go, girl," Liron tells her, his little bat face twisting into a smirk. He juts one wing in the direction of the marry-go-round wheel, where three girls about Hermione's age stand around in a small circle, talking to one another. One of the girls' daemons is running around the small group as a Chihuahua, yipping at another girl's chipmunk daemon. The third girl, who actually looks a little older than Hermione and the other two, has a pigeon daemon squatting quietly on her shoulder, looking down at the other two daemons running around.

With a sigh, Hermione closes her book and slips it into the knapsack at her feet. Slipping the strap over her shoulder, Hermione gets to her feet very slowly.

"Let's do it, then," she mumbles, and Liron lands on her head.

"That's the spirit," he says, and the excitement in his voice cheers Hermione up a little.

"If this goes south, you'd better remember this was all _your _idea," Hermione adds, as she nears the girls. The one with the pigeon daemon, a blonde girl with hazel eyes, shifts her gaze to Hermione and tilts her head a little.

"You need something?" the girl asks bluntly, though not harshly.

"Um…" Hermione starts, her eyes darting to the other two girls as they turn their eyes to her as well. The Chihuahua and chipmunk come to halts and stare up inquiringly at Liron.

"Hello," Liron says, when Hermione still cannot find her voice. "We were wondering if we could play with you guys? You look like you're having a blast!"

"We are," the girl with the chipmunk daemon says. Her hair is dark and she has dozens of freckles on her face; a face which wrinkles up into a frown. "And we don't need anyone else to join in- it'd be a crowd."

Her daemon flicks his tail and moves closer to the girl, but doesn't say anything.

Hermione's face falls, and Liron suddenly shifts into a yellow canary.

"Aww, c'mon," he insists, and Hermione lifts her eyes to shoot him a look of warning. Liron ignores her, and flies down towards the chipmunk daemon, his wings making a loud flutter. "We can be fun, too. Really!"

The chipmunk shifts into a small gray tabby cat, and without warning, lashes out at Liron with a hiss. Unprepared for the assault, Liron takes the full force of the paw strike to his face, and pain lances through Hermione's cheek and jaw, just as her daemon lets out a bird's shrill whistle of pain.

Hermione gasps and steps backwards, and Liron quickly flies back up and settles down on the top of her head. She can still feel his pain throbbing dully as if it is her own, and she looks at the girl with the freckles, hurt and offended.

"You don't have to be _mean,_" she says angrily, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She swallows and balls her hands into fists at her sides, determined not to cry in front of them. The girl's daemon hisses again, and this time the other two daemons make threatening noises at her, too.

Hermione is at a complete loss, not sure if she is supposed to believe that _complete strangers _would not even want to play with her.

Did she have some sign floating above her that flashed **stay away** or something?

"Never mind," Hermione spits, and flees back to the bench before any of the girls can say anything. Only as she makes her way to the bench, Hermione glances past it and decides to keep moving. The park she is at is only a few blocks away from her home, which is why she's allowed to be here alone in the first place.

Feeling that she has more than enough excitement for one day, Hermione decides to go home and retreat to safety. Sitting quietly on her head, Liron says nothing.

She can sense his embarrassment and dejection though, and she doesn't quite know what to say to reassure him or make him feel better.

She's not sure if there are any words to, even if she were to try.

_So much for making friends, _Hermione thinks. _It might just be me and Liron, only, from now on._

And as much as Hermione cherishes her daemon, her other half, the thought does not fill her with the warmth and security now, as her mom always promised it would.

Humans weren't created to be alone; and neither were their daemons.

Making her way to their home, both Hermione and Liron don't say anything, nursing their respective wounds in silence.

.

.

.

Harry lets out a soft moan, turning fitfully in his sleep. Small beads of cold sweat saturate his forehead, and he curls his small body tightly into a ball.

It barely gives him any more room in his hideously small cupboard, passed off as his bedroom.

"Mm... no… _run,_" Harry mumbles, and his brow furrows into a deep frown. The ebony tendrils of his hair stick to his sweaty face and his ivory pale skin is only darkened by a semi-feverish flush across his cheekbones and nose.

The well-worn cot squeaks as he turns over onto his side, and a distant, _"Quiet!" _from elsewhere in the house makes Harry's daemon open her eyes.

Sparkling emerald eyes, the same unsettling jeweled gaze of her human's, turn to look at said human.

Now that she is awake, Harry is quick to follow, but not quickly enough. Shifting into the form of a small squirrel, Amynta's reddish-brown fur bristles with distress as Harry's breath stutters in his chest.

He is having another nightmare, but if he keeps making noise, Uncle Vernon and Moran will make their day a living _hell._

Scampering up her human's scrawny chest, Amynta nuzzles her nose into the crook between Harry's jawline and collar bone. Even in his sleep, he can feel the waves of soothing comfort from his daemon, and his body relaxes a fraction.

Amynta nudges him, and flicks her furry tail across his ear, tickling him.

He lets out a whimper at her assault, before his eyelids flutter and he yawns. When he finally lifts his long, black lashes to reveal sleepy green eyes, Amynta shifts into a black rabbit and licks the side of his face affectionately.

"Wake up, sleepy head," she croons, and Harry lazily runs his fingers over her head, flattening back her long, silky ears. At his touch, she sighs and her body turns fluid as she settles down on his shoulder, curling up to get comfortable.

The silence is comfortable, and even though they both know they will have to get up for chores soon, for right now they have this perfect moment.

Amynta's body is so warm, and Harry stifles a small smile.

_How can she expect me to get up, when it's so much easier to go back to sleep? _He wonders, somewhat mystified.

"Don't wanna get up, Amy," Harry slurs after a moment, his face half buried in his pillow. "Still sleepy…"

Amynta's nose twitches and he can hear her soft chuckle as she bounds off of him and moves to the door. She turns back to face him, one of her long ears turned to him and her other perked up backwards, in the direction of the door.

"Me neither," Amynta assures him. Her other ear cocks back, and it's then that Harry hears the soft creak coming from the staircase of the house. "Someone's up, and I don't think we'll be allowed to go back to sleep, though," she says with a sigh, and Harry shifts on the bed as Amynta's anger ghosts over his senses.

He knows she doesn't like them being treated like they are slaves, and detests how they are both always made to feel like they are undeserving. Luckily enough, however, she has enough semblance of self-preservation not to voice it when Harry's relatives are close enough to overhear.

"Well, might as well get the day started," Harry grumbles, reaching up to run his fingers through his permanent unruly hair with one hand, and slipping on a pair of well-worn glasses with the other.

He yawns again.

Amynta snorts at his attempt to straighten out his hair, and Harry sticks his tongue out at her.

"I don't need any cheek from you," he grins, mock scolding her. Amynta's head tilts at an angle, and her nose twitches.

"No, I think you'd be better off with a comb than anything else," she teases, and Harry manages a soft laugh before someone raps hard on the other side of the cupboard's door.

The jovial mood vanishes instantly, and both Harry and Amynta stifle groans as they hear Uncle Vernon speak up.

"Get up, boy! You don't have all day to sleep away; there are chores that need to be done. This place needs to be tidied up before we can get things ready for Dud's birthday!"

Both Harry and Amynta roll their eyes silently at each other. Harry's cousin, Dudley, was constantly talking about his upcoming birthday, which wasn't for another _week. _But, as with anything Dudley Dursley, if he wanted something, his parents more often than not gave it to him.

Harry could hear the bolt on the other side being unlocked, and waits with baited breath as Uncle Vernon and Moran walks off to the kitchen, before silently slipping out. He closes the cupboard door silently, his face turned towards the kitchen in an effort to keep a look out for his uncle.

Unfortunately, this means he is unprepared for his cousin coming up behind him.

When Dudley's daemon, Christa, jumps onto Amynta as a large, pudgy bulldog, Harry winces from the pain and shifts in discomfort as his daemon lets out a little yip from surprise.

Quickly getting her bearings, Amynta lets out a sniff, before shifting into a red fox, and scampering out from beneath Christa's weight. Ears flattened against her skull, Amynta hisses a warning, pressing her side against Harry's leg and curling her fluffy tail around his ankle.

Harry glares at Dudley, who just leers at him.

"Good morning, freak," Dudley chuckles, as Christa shifts into a coyote, slightly pudgier than Amynta's form. She sneaks closer to Harry's leg, and Amynta lets out a snarl, before snapping her jaws and then raising her hackles to expose her sharp canines.

Christa lowers her head, her tail swishing slowly behind her as if she is about to pounce.

"Leave me alone, Dudley," Harry warns his cousin. "I have stuff to do, and you're only gonna end up with a spoiled birthday party if I can't get all of it done,"

He knows instantly that he has said the magic words when Dudley's eyes go wide. Christa almost immediately shifts into a ferret and scampers up his pant leg, up his arm and then wounds herself halfway around his neck.

Dudley shrugs and shoves past Harry, knocking into the smaller boy with his shoulder, hard.

"Then you better hop to it, then, huh?" he grins, and Harry has to bite his tongue to keep from lashing out a retort that would surely result in him getting a lashing of his own from Uncle Vernon.

As Dudley and Christa disappear into the kitchen, Harry takes a moment to kneel down and run his hand over Amynta's head. She shifts back into a black rabbit, and preens under his soft, loving touch.

"So much for a loving family supposedly being everything," Harry mutters angrily, eyeing the kitchen doorway with contempt. Leaping up into his arms, Amynta presses her face against his chest, feeling his sure heartbeat thump in perfect rhythm to her own.

"Too bad we don't have a loving family to test out the theory," she points out. Then she sighs blissfully as Harry lifts her up to place a kiss right on her quivering nose.

_So true, _Harry thinks with a sigh of his own.

* * *

**TBC.**

* * *

**NOTE:** I put a bit of thought into many of the HP characters' daemons, and while I have a pretty good idea on many of their settled forms and personalities, I did get a little help on their names by looking up old ones.

**Amynta**: Is Greek, and a female version of the word "defender". Seeing as Harry is considered a kind of protector (and Amynta's later settled form), I thought this would be ideal.

**Liron**: Is Hebrew for "my song". I personally just liked the name, and can pass the reasoning of the name off on Hermione's parents, who felt their daughter was like a precious melody, or something.

As for the Dursleys and their demons... no particular meaning. *shrugs*

We'll see how far this story goes; I only plan to have a few more chapters where Harry and Hermione meet, and end it there. But if readers want a continuation, I am more than up for a longer story. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Here we go with a little more. I really hope you guys like, and feel free to leave any questions on anything you're confused about, or even if there's something you'd like to see happen. I'd like to think I'm somewhat lenient in that aspect, so please feel free to let me know! :)

**Settings: **The only thing that people need to know for this story is that it incorporates, from _His Dark Materials, _the concept of daemons and all of the social etiquette that follows. (For those who don't know, daemons are spiritual manifestations of a person's soul- their other half, if you will, -that walks beside that person instead of residing in their bodies. Daemons take on the forms of animal wildlife, but are just as intelligent and independently willed as much as their humans are, with their own personalities and dispositions.)

Other than that, (and Harry and Hermione meeting earlier than normal), the world of _Harry Potter _is relatively the same. For now, anyway.

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Neither _Harry Potter, _nor _His Dark Materials, _belong to me. I use them only for entertainment purposes. I promise to return them in mint condition when I'm done.

* * *

_"Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold; happiness dwells in the soul..."** ~Democritus**_

* * *

**:Chapter One:**

* * *

"This is a little different for us," Liron says, his voice holding just a small amount of awe. Hermione shoves her hands deeper into her pants' pockets and tries to resist the urge to shrug. She doesn't reply to him. It wasn't her idea to come to the zoo- she'd been steadfast in her decision to head to the local library, what with it being such a nice, sunny day outside.

There, she could be in her _real _element, burying herself within pages of books and hiding among the silent shelves.

Not _here, _in such a public, open place with a multitude of children and their families wondering around from one animal cage to another.

Sometimes Hermione wonders how she manages to let her parents convince her that these little "adventures" will help her shape up into a "well rounded" individual. In the end, however, the fact remains her parents have finally taken a day off work just to spend with her, so she isn't one to complain too much, even if she has to spend it around goggling eyed children and bored animals sleeping behind caged walls.

"Cheer up, 'Mione Moe," Hermione's father, Matthew, pipes up from behind his brooding daughter. "It's so nice out- you should turn that frown upside down!" He chuckles at his own joke, and his Labrador daemon, Talia, rolls her eyes at the chuckling man.

"We need to find you some new jokes, Matthew," Talia implores her human, and Hermione cannot help her lips twitching into a grin at Talia.

The daemon gives Hermione a conspiratorial wink, and Hermione smiles wider.

Matthew shushes Talia, before he reaches out and ruffles Hermione's already frazzled hair. She ducks her head down to escape his touch.

"Daa_aadd,_" Hermione pleads, but her affection for him is apparent when Liron- who is wearing the form of a seagull today and strolling alongside Talia–stretches out a wing and brushes it against the dog daemon's side. The yellow fur is soft and warm beneath Liron's feathers, and Talia lets out an appreciative whine at the contact.

She lowers her large head down and rolls a hearty lick across the back of Liron's feathery neck.

Hermione turns her face away as she can feel the rush of her dad's affection for her through his daemon's contact with Liron, a heavy breath escaping her as the warmth dances across her skin and spreads inside of her. Instead, she turns her focus across the walkway, in the direction of the large, colorful sign designing the tunnel entrance.

_Serpent Underground _the sign reads, and on the sides of the tunnel entrance are cardboard cutouts of snakes wrapping around the walls. As Hermione wonders what kinds of snakes they have, she can hear her mother's chuckling a ways behind her.

"Settle down, Matt," she says and Xavier, her goose daemon, hums in agreement. When Hermione glances back at her parents, she can see Xavier being cradled in her mom's arms, but his long neck is stretched out in Talia's direction. Talia is trailing by her father's legs, but her face is turned to Xavier, and her long tail wags unabashedly in excitement.

She even bounds forward for a moment, balancing on her back paws, to give a caressing lick to Xavier's beak. A hot flush mars her mother's cheeks, just as her father winks at Lucille coyly. Xavier's elegant feathers ruffle, and he lets out a low, throaty whine and shifts in his human's hold. He jerks his head at Talia, most likely in effort to return the affection, but the dog daemon bounds away playfully with a smug bark, moving to Matthew's other side.

Hermione tries to keep the blush off her face at the open, unashamed affection her parents are showing each other, and turns away. She is only glad that neither her mother nor father has touched one another's daemons in front of her- she isn't sure if she'd be able to live through the mortification of having to see something so blatant- so _intimate_ it is almost religiously sacred -being displayed where she can witness it.

_I hope me and Liron are never so… publicly affectionate with _our _special person like that, _Hermione thinks, feeling her cheeks flare again at the mere thought. _I'm not sure if I'd even want to hold _hands _in front of other people!_

Something warm settles on the top of Hermione's head, and when she lifts her eyes, she can see Liron's seagull face peering down at her.

"Hello," he says cheerfully, and Hermione rolls her eyes.

"Mom? Dad? Can we go there next?" Hermione asks, pointing at the large tunnel entrance. Anything to tear her away from her current train of thoughts. Liron bobs his head down for a moment.

"Snakes?" he inquires, and ruffles his feathers. Hermione nods decisively.

"Snakes," she tells him.

"If that's what you want, honey," Lucille says with a shrug, and as one the family make their way to the tunnel.

As soon as they enter, everything is darkened because the pathway slopes down, doing underground. The path is segregated by directions arrows painted onto the cement, a set of green arrows for going into the tunnel, and a set of red arrows pointing in the direction of leaving the tunnel. Soft lanterns align the walls to help the people moving in and out see, but it is a soft, ambient glow more than anything else.

Hermione also notices that it is already a little warmer in the tunnel that is outside.

_Snakes are cold blooded, _she remembers belatedly, moving with her parents down three different set of stairs. When they finally reach the bottom, even over the crowd of people gathering at different display cases or children running down the pathways, Hermione can see a _long _set of display windows on either side of the tunnel, stretching out further than she can see.

_They have a _lot _of snakes, _Hermione thinks, and moves to the nearest display window. Liron pushes off of her head and shifts into a bat midair. He then swoops around her neck, before planting himself on the small ledge outside the display window's sill, his wings folding neatly against his side. He presses his nose up against the thick glass, smashing it almost comically, and Hermione giggles whenever he breathes out and his breath fogs up the glass.

"Liron," she laughs, and then shakes her head when Liron turns to stick his tongue out at her, before smashing his nose back up against the window. Sometimes she knows her daemon can be quite hopeless when he wants to be.

"Oh, my. The snake is _beautiful,_" Xavier says appreciatively from Lucille's arms, and Hermione, her dad and mom all nod in agreement. The snake in question, a python, is twisted along a thick tree branch, and appears to be sleeping. The python is quite long and has a thick body, which Hermione knows is full of muscles.

"You think that snake is prettier than me?" Talia teases, and Xavier slips out of Lucille's arms to flutter to the ground next to the dog daemon.

"Of course not," Xavier declares back, and nuzzles Talia with his neck. "What is an animal compared to you, my one and only?"

Hermione laughs when Matthew sticks his tongue out at Lucille for Xavier's cheesy lines, and Lucille blows Matthew a kiss before fluttering her eyelashes theatrically.

"Eww. Get a _room,_" a rude voice speaks up, and all three of the Grangers turn to see who it is. A young boy, clearly overweight, is standing there with his arms across his chest, tapping his foot impatiently. His platinum blonde hair sticks to his head from sweat and baby blue eyes peer out from beneath a furrowed, golden brow.

"I came to see the snakes, not _you,_" he sneers, and Hermione frowns.

"There are plenty of snakes," she says without thinking. She waves her hand breezily. "Go find them somewhere else,"

Liron lets out a half-choke, half-gasp at her boldness, and even her parents turn to her in semi-astonishment. Hermione glances at them, before back to the blonde kid who just glowers at her.

"Well, there _are,_" she huffs, starting to feel a little self-conscious at her earlier declaration. Maybe she should have stayed silent. "We can be here if we want to, and you shouldn't be so rude." She folds her arms around her herself, and when the blonde boy's daemon, a pudgy bull dog, moves forward and growls menacingly at her, she takes a step back on instinct.

She is immediately reminded of the girls from the park almost a week ago, and shivers.

The bull dog daemon edges closer to her, while the boy looks smug. Liron, however, suddenly swoops over her head and lands at her feet, shifting into a small beagle. He raises his furry tail, and lowers his head in a clear sign of challenge.

A small growl emanates from him, and its Hermione's turn to be surprised- Liron is rarely aggressive.

"That's enough," Matthew starts seriously, but whatever else he is about to say is cut off when the bulldog _leaps _at Liron, tangling them into a ball of wriggling forms. Hermione lets out a hiss when she feels a sharp pain at her neck- the bulldog daemon having nipped Liron.

A deeper, more menacing growl comes from Talia, and Xavier's feathers ruffle until he looks twice his size, his wings arched out over his head in a clear sign of warning. Passersby are starting to stare, and a few adults hurriedly grab their children and move them away from the scene.

But no one has any chance to do anything when another boy's voice chimes up, "Leave 'em alone, Dudley."

Turning her head, Hermione sees a scrawny looking boy with ivory skin and unruly black hair hurry over to them from another display case. He's wearing a pair of black glasses that have tape holding them together at the bridge, and a shirt and jeans that look to be a bit big on him.

But what draws her attention the most are the startling green eyes behind the glasses, so bright and a shade of emerald she isn't sure could be possible for a human. His eyes flicker to her for only a moment, before they turn to the blonde boy, and narrow into a hard, disdainful look.

The blonde boy, Dudley, curls his lip at the scrawny kid, before turning away.

"This place is lame anyway," he sulks, and walks off as if nothing has happened, his daemon hurrying to trail after him. Silence settles, and the boy wipes at the back of his neck, ducking his head sheepishly.

Hermione can see that his pale cheeks are tinged a light pink, and she immediately finds herself offering him a small, shaky smile. Liron, still in his beagle form, moves closer to Hermione's side, and looks at the boy inquiringly. Hermione knows what Liron is looking for, and apparently so does the boy.

He offers her a hesitant smile of his own, before his eyes fall to Liron. He pets his shirt, and Hermione watches as it suddenly _moves, _before a small, furry head pops out of the collar of his shirt. A twin set of emerald eyes gaze around from the squirrel daemon's face, before lowering and zooming in on Liron.

As soon as the two daemons set eyes on each other, Liron's tail immediately starts wagging. The boy's daemon wriggles herself free from his shirt and shifts into a small robin, flying into the air. Liron settles on his back paws, following her intently with his eyes, before shifting into a canary and lifting to fly after her, letting out a shrill chirp.

She chirps back at him, and Hermione can sense Liron's bubbling happiness warming inside her own chest.

Hermione, for her part, just stares wide eyed and mystified at her daemon's sudden enthusiasm. It's quite unlike him to take an instant liking to any daemon, and while not frightening, it's a little… different than she's used to.

The boy blinks, looking confused as well with his own daemon's behavior, before shaking his head with a soft sigh. Behind her, Hermione can hear her mother let out a ghost of chuckle and her father grunt, but doesn't take her eyes off of the black haired boy to see her parents' faces.

"I'm… um, sorry about my cousin," the boy offers, stepping a little closer. His eyes shifts to his daemon, who is fluttering around in a circle with Liron, both daemons coming dangerously close to touching one another but parting at the last moment. They are both chirping and fluttering their wings in such a state of excitement that both Hermione and the boy blush at the display.

There is nothing inappropriate about it, of course, but it is a bit unsettling at how the daemons are playing with each other, almost sizing the other up. Especially since neither Hermione nor the boy actually _know _each other.

"He's kind of a major git, and I don't think he can help it," the boy continues, and they tear their eyes away from their daemons.

Hermione giggles nervously at him, and when he sees this, he ducks his head again. But Hermione can see his lips twist into a small, almost imperceptible smile.

She immediately feels a little better about the situation, knowing he is as shy and unsure as she feels.

"I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger," she offers after a moment, and the boy jerks his head up to look at her fully. Hermione jerks her head in Liron's direction. "That's Liron."

The boy doesn't say anything for a moment, before his lips twist into an open smile and he nods.

"Harry Potter," the boy offers softly. "That's Amynta, and apparently she's in a good mood today,"

Hermione rolls her eyes.

"Well, she and Liron, I suppose. It must be contagious or something," She only says the last part as it pops up into her head, but when Harry lets out a genuine laugh, she feels extremely accomplished.

_Maybe it... might not just be me and Liron after all, _Hermione thinks fleetingly, biting her lower lip and trying to keep a blush from overwhelming her cheeks.

As soon as Harry smiles again at her, however, before turning his eyes over to their daemons, she loses the battle and her cheeks become inflamed.

She can only be extremely grateful Harry is too distracted to notice.

* * *

**TBC.**

* * *

**NOTE: **Yeah... I'm thinking of stopping it here, if only so the next chapter can completely focus on their interactions at the zoo. And, in my mind, at least, I imagine I'll probably end the story a little after that.

But the reviewers have asked for a continuation, and I'm toying with the strong possibility of writing out a full-length _H__arry Potter _story set in this 'Verse. If I do, just remember that the characters' daemons are just as important, so their going to get as much screen time as the human characters. M'kay?

... Erm, if anyone _wants _to read a full-length story, I mean.

Heh.


End file.
